Chapter 4: When In Doubt, Attack

Jimmy slumped quietly over. "Hey." Denny exclaimed, "What's wrong?"

"Hungry, dizzy," Jimmy answered in a weak voice, "I'm so hungry."

"Oh my god. Jimmy, I'm so sorry. You asked for more to eat and I just..." she broke off one sentence and started another, "Take him into that soup and sandwich café next to the clothing store. Oh, I'm so sorry, dear. So stupid."

Without hesitation, Denny plucked the starving young man out of the out of the front seat and carried him into the small café. He sat Jimmy into a booth. "Give me a cup of your beef stew," he ordered as a young waitress came up to the booth. "Nothing else," he said when she waited for him to order. "Now." he barked when she still didn't move, waiting for Dave and Dana to order.

She jumped and half ran to get the single cup of soup. When she came back with the small bowl and a spoon and crackers, her mouth was set in a firm line of anger. "I'm sorry he barked at you, Dear," Dana told the young girl, but this is an emergency." The young waitress nodded and noticed Jimmy for the first time.

"Are you a movie star or something?" She was looking at his face, staring at it, memorizing it.

Jealousy stirred in heart as she saw the way the waitress was looking at Jimmy. "No," she answered shortly, "he needs to be left alone."

Big burly Dave handed Jimmy a spoon and said in a soft and gentle voice, "Take it easy, partner. Take small bites and chew the solids in your food. We go without eating in survival training and I know how hard it is to not just grab and gulp. Small bites now."

Dana also felt another pang as she watched Dave feeding her angel. That was her job and someone else was doing it. It was damned hard for her to just stand there and watch someone else do what she considered her job. "He's right, Jimmy," she reluctantly.

He quickly finished the soup and looked around for more. Dave grinned and told him, "Easy there, partner. Let it all settle some before you try to eat any more. Your stomach has shrunk and you have to take it easy.

Suddenly Dana's cell phone beeped and she answered it, "Dear, there's a half dozen of the roughest looking men I have ever seen standing in your front yard. Did you make a gang mad at you? They look meaner than the bad guys in my high class novels." Elmo Griggs called her on the line that call forwarded from her house phone.

"Are you in the house? Are you okay? Have you been kidnapped? What are they doing to you, girl?" He babbled on in his hysterical way.

"Are you on your cell phone, Elmo?" she asked.

"Well yes, why?"

"I want you to take it over and hand it to one of those guys," she told him gently but firmly.

"Won't they get mad at me? These guys are mean looking. They have muscles on their eye lids I think." He sounded truly scared.

"They are friends, Elmo, please take the telephone over and hand it to one of them."

"Which one? Can't you look out the window and tell me which brute to hand the phone to?" In Elmo's quiet world of happy people and stories with great endings, there was no room for Navy Seals or other rough people. Even his bad guys weren't all that mean by today's standards.

"Elmo, I am sitting in Chula Vista in a little restaurant with two of those 'brutes' as you call them. I can't look out the window. Just hand the damned phone to one of those brutes, please.

She handed her cell phone to Denny who said, "This is Lieutenant Merewether, who am I talking to?" he listened and said, "One of you make a beer run into Coronado. Ten cases should do it. You'll be reimbursed by the very nice lady who is your host and client. Get a bunch of jerky and other snacks. When the rest of the team gets there, drink beer, pick up the cans and stay inside.

"The house key will be in a green rock halfway down the walkway between the boat and the house. Go in and don't make a mess. Give the nice man back his phone and thank him." Denny flipped the phone shut and handed it back to an astonished Dana.

"How did you know where my spare house key?" she demanded.

"FBI training," he told her with a smile. "The agent who instructed us said that all too many times there would be a plastic rock among a bunch of real ones. Just look for the phony one or the green one. Many people buy green plastic rocks so they have a point of reference when they tell others where it is. Thieves also look for these things, too."

"Oh," a suddenly deflated woman lawyer replied. She was at loss for words. All her adult live she had been the one who took the initiative and charged ahead. Now, in the course of a single day, the all at once hard, rough, always in charge broad she had fashioned herself to be was turning out to be less than she had imagined, much less.

"Ready to go, Sport?" Dave asked Jimmy.

He nodded and asked, "Would it be all right if you just helped me to walk. Guys don't like to be carried, you know." Another pang hit Dana as she saw how he wanted to not be dependant on anyone. Dana felt guilty as she realized how she wanted him to be helpless so she could take care of him.

I'm sorry, Jimmy, she thought silently as she looked at his peeling, sunburned face. His big eyes seemed so helpless. Her hungry heart reached out to him.

Dave scooted out of the booth and grabbed the offered wrist and lifted Jimmy out. He stood still and let the young man get his bearings and then helped him to slowly walk outside and to the car. He opened the door and stepped back to permit Jimmy to sit down and ease himself all the way inside. "Thank you, Dave," he said. "Guys just don't like to be so helpless. You know that yourself."

"Hey. We all need a hand sometimes," an embarrassed Dave answered.

Dana, followed behind and kept in step with Denny while she listened to the interplay between the two and understood she had wanted to smother him and encourage him to be helpless. The emotions roiling inside her confused her. She couldn't think straight.

Dave jumped in back and Dennis slid into the car. "Let's get out of here," he said. "That waitress could remember our handsome friend here. Let's go out to the big mall east of town."

Dana nodded, got in and started the car. They pulled away from the curb and into the sparse traffic. She drove to the mall, kept her silence until they arrived. She pulled up in front of the main entrance.

"You all get out here and I'll park and catch up with you." There. She got to make a decision and it was a good one. She smiled to herself as they got out. It felt good to get to give one order and not be corrected by these guys. She grinned her triumph as she went to find a parking space.

Dave helped Jimmy over to the low brick wall by the entrance to the mall and eased him down onto it. Jimmy smiled and nodded his relief. "We'll get you a wheel chair so we can move around a little faster. It looks like we're going to make a bunch of purchases.

Also, if you're up to it, we'll get you another snack. How about some ice cream or yogurt if they have something not all doped up with preservatives and chemicals?"

"Oh man. That would be great," Jimmy answered gratefully. "I like you." he said, embarrassing Dave.

"Aw hell." the red faced seal answered, clearly pleased at the open and honest compliment. "Aw hell." he repeated and patted the young man's shoulder.

Denny watched the bonding and smiled. Some of the unlikeliest people made friends with each other. His ruminations were interrupted as Dana came hurrying up. "Everything all right?" she asked anxiously as she bustled up to them. She looked over at the way Jimmy was resting with his head bent down.

"Fine as can be, Dana," Dave answered. "Do you think we could get the champ here some ice cream? Just a little bit. Also, I would like to get some diet supplements plus almond butter and honey and other stuff which will speed the strengthening process. The goop you spread on his face probably saved his skin from bad scarring. Now we need to attend to the inner man. His body craves a lot of stuff that he lacks right now."

More curious than resentful, she asked, "Where did you get to be such an expert on diet and nutrition?"

"I'm a body builder, ma'am, a serious one. I have to know about those things. Oh yeah, I need to get some tee shirts. This luau shirt was the nearest thing to a dress shirt I own. I need something more comfortable. You'll see what I mean when I get a tee shirt on." He looked serious.

They strolled over to a frozen yogurt stand. Dave ordered a small cone for Jimmy and a larger one for himself. Dana and Denny watched as the two enjoyed the yogurt. Halfway through his, Jimmy said, "I can't eat any more. I'm full"

"Yup, that's what I figured. Your stomach is still shrunk and you won't be able to eat much at any one time for a couple of days or so." He popped the rest of his cone in his mouth and swallowed it. He then took the smaller half eaten cone and dropped it in a handy trash bin.

Then Dana led the way to a men's store and started to order. "Wait," Dave said. "I'd suggest you get some dungarees two sizes too big in the waist. Get him size fifteen and a half shirts. He will need a couple of belts and size small in the waist boxer shorts for underwear. He's going to grow into them in the next two weeks, believe me."

Again she started to feel anger at her judgment being challenged. With an effort she took a deep breath and nodded silently her agreement. Jimmy watched in amazement as clothes were brought to him, shown, and then taken away to be altered. "For tomorrow he will need something that fits him right now," Dana said.

She saw both men staring down at her. "Well, I want, er, he needs to be dressed properly when we drop our first bomb." She smiled her shark smile and continued, "When we charge a state senator with assault and battery, white slavery and kidnapping in civil court, a whole lot of exciting things are going to happen.

Judge Reynolds' court is the one I'm going to file in. He knows I don't waste time on frivolous suits and will be most willing to get this on the docket. I estimate about fifteen minutes for the word to make it to the newspapers and TV and radio and an hour before the first reporter shows up. Then you guys are really going to earn your money."

Dave looked grim, "Let's get the clothes and make our next stop a sporting goods store and then a truck stop." Suddenly Dave spotted a health spa just two doors down from the clothing store. "Wait one, I'll be right back."

He hurried away and returned less than five minutes later with a bundle under his arm. He was grinning as he held up a plastic shopping bag. "I got me a few tee shirts and some running shorts and tennis shoes. I also got something for the champ here guaranteed to put some meat on his bones in a hurry."

Cautiously, Dana looked at the paper bag. "What's in it?" she asked.

"Bee pollen, Almond butter, high protein weight gain formula and vitamin pills. This stuff is expensive, but it works. I guarantee old Jimmy here will be running and kicking butt in a week.

"Aren't you supposed to be a doctor to prescribe that stuff?" She was not a great believer in "health fads," as she called them.

"Look at me." He whipped off the bulky Hawaiian shirt and stood there in front of her naked to the waist. Passers by grinned and a couple of women applauded. Unembarrassed at the scene he made, he donned one of the new skintight tee shirts. "You see anything wrong with this build?"

"Not one to hurry to conversion, she answered, "Well, it's all right if you like the ungainly muscle bound types."

He laughed out loud and bent over and placed his palms flat on the floor. His knees never bent. Then he somehow brought his feet up in the air until he was standing on his hands. He did ten fast full push ups and returned to his feet. He showed no aftereffects from his exertions.

"I can't guarantee Jimbo will be able to do the same sort of stuff as a simple routine in a week or so, but I can have him well on the road to recovery. Believe me I have been studying nutrition and the human body ever since I had polio."

She looked at him, disbelief very apparent in her eyes. "You had polio? Come on now."

"Look lady, I don't lie. I see you trying to mother hen that boy when what he needs is a chance to let his body repair itself. I don't know what your relationship with each other is and I don't care. But believe me, he needs to be given a chance."

Jimmy broke in, "Hey. Don't I have any say in all this? You two are talking about me like I'm not really here. I don't like it." His jaw was set in a firm line. "Besides I got to go to the bathroom again.

"I'm sorry, sport, but I never had anyone ever question me on health issues before, ever. I started to take it too personal. If you want, I'll butt out. I only want to help you get better as fast as you can, but I was being really pushy." Dave looked at the fragile Jimmy and showed a silent apology on his face.

"Will this stuff really work?" he asked in a wondering voice.

"Oh you bet it will. You see, Almond butter is an almost perfect way to get good vegetable oils and protein into your system, The bee pollen ... he chattered on and on about the vitamins and proper food intake. Jimmy listened raptly to every word the big man was saying.

Denny finally interrupted, having heard Dave expound on health matters many times before. "Let's get the knives and other stuff and head back. You can talk to the boy when we get back to the base."

"Base?" Dana asked, "What base?"

"Our base of operations, your house," Denny answered. "Today is free time. But tomorrow we must be prepared for anything, no matter what. I have some special stuff coming in with the bunch waiting for us. We better get there before they run out of beer." He laughed, "War, wine and women, the three necessities of life for a seal." Then he added "Plus copious quantities of Budweiser."

Dave came hurrying back, an arm under Jimmy's shoulders, supporting him. They were both smiling grimly. "We better get the hell out of here right now, Dave said in a low voice. "We just ran into a past associate of Jimbo's."

"Yeah." Jimmy added. "Dave stuffed him in a paper towel can."

"You can't fit the human body in one of those." Dana protested.

"Oh yes you can. Dave just did it."

Dave added, "You just have to fold them in the proper places. It can be done."

"Damnation." Dana exclaimed, "Who was it, Jimmy? Anyone I know?"

"I don't know, Dana, but he's a cop and he had his uniform on."

"Let's go." Dennis ordered and Dave nodded and picked up Jimmy and hurried toward the entrance.

Jimmy was placed in the front seat, Dave and Denny got in back. Dana got in and started the engine. Slowly she pulled out of the parking spot and eased toward the exit to the frontage road. An ambulance came wailing by headed toward the mall. "That was fast," Dave said, "I sure didn't think he'd be found so soon. I stuffed him way down deep."

Dana slowly drove west toward I-5, then headed due north toward the Coronado Bridge. As they crossed the bridge back toward the island, Denny asked Jimmy, "Can you reach down and get the gun under the seat? If you can't, that's all right."

With great effort Jimmy slowly bent over and with great straining, handed the heavy automatic back toward the back seat. "Thanks, Champ," Dennis said.

The conferring of nicknames on Jimmy irritated Dana. She knew nothing about male bonding and thought the whole thing of made up names childish. She handed her pass to the guard at the tollbooth and was waved on by. As soon as they made the turn off the bridge and headed toward her house, she sped up. She felt somehow control had slipped out of her hands and she was not happy with that. Also she was worried about having a bunch of strangers wandering around her home.